Brooke Burke Shares the 4 Biggest Lessons She’s Learned in Her 40s

Burke, 47, is the founder of the Brooke Burke Body app. Here, she opens up about health and wellness, raising kids, and the biggest lessons she’s learned.

A big lesson I’ve learned in my 40s is to enjoy my own company. I’ve raised four children, I’ve run multiple businesses, and in that chaos, you can get a little lost. So now I sit with myself and carve out time to check in. I treat myself with compassion.

As cheeky as it sounds, health and wellness is an inside job. It’s really about how you feel about yourself. Exercise gives me energy, it balances my stress, and it gives me self-confidence. It’s not just vanity and the physical benefit; it really runs deep. That’s something that I preach in my classes and on my app—taking care of yourself feels really good.

I don’t spend a lot of time paying attention to what everyone else thinks. I know the people who matter to me. I value those opinions, but what means the most is what I think about me. That’s one of the dangerous things about social media—especially for young people. We’ve got bullies, haters, and negative comments. You have to be able to differentiate between what matters and what doesn’t.

If I only had known that all my children would speak a different language, it would’ve been much easier along the way! And by that I mean I’ve learned that you have to raise children differently and understand how to parent individually. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another. I have learned to be flexible.